“Hello, I‘m definitely not calling from India. Can I take control of your PC?”

The Federal Trade Commission today announced a broad crackdown on scareware scammers accused of using an ancient technology—the telephone—to trick thousands of unsuspecting victims into handing over full access to their Windows PCs. By cold-calling victims and claiming to be from companies like Microsoft, Dell, and McAfee, the scammers directed users to a harmless error log on their computers and told them it was a sign of a serious infection, the FTC said. The alleged scammers went on to charge anywhere between $49 and $450 to "fix" the consumers' computers.

At a press conference announcing six lawsuits filed in US District Court in New York, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said at least 2,400 people—and probably many more—were tricked in this manner. The FTC believes such scams have cost consumers tens of millions of dollars worldwide.

Like a bad Bollywood movie

The FTC played a phone call between one of the defendants and a female victim, who was actually a "highly skilled FTC investigator" playing the role of a clueless computer user. The defendant has an Indian accent, but calls were generally spoofed to appear to be coming from US phone numbers.

Defendant: OK, so now what you need to do, madam, you need to scroll down the page very slowly, very carefully from your end, and you need to just pull it down and tell me if you can see anything else other than the blue color information over there or not. And if you see anything else over there, let me know.

FTC agent: OK. Hold on, I'm doing that.

Defendant: Very careful, all right.

FTC agent. [Pauses]. Ummm, let's see. Oops! Hold on.

Defendant: Uh huh.

FTC agent: Umm, I see something that says "warning"? And something that says "error"?

Defendant: Jesus! Did you see some warnings?

FTC agent: Yeah it says…

Defendant: Hello?

FTC agent: Yeah it says "warning."

Defendant: Madam, it would be my humble request to you, please do not try to click on any of them, OK?

FTC agent: OK.

Defendant: And it would be my request that you keep your mouse pointed away from them, because they are the malicious online infections I was speaking about. Once you click on any of them your computer might even stop responding at any point in time. So be very careful, OK?

FTC agent: OK. I'm not touching the mouse!

Defendant: If you have already seen them this means your computer is also one of those computers which has been infected with the online infections, OK?

Leibowitz cut off the recording there, and said "At one level that's like a bad Bollywood movie. But at another level, that's a serious ripoff of consumers." Such scams have been going on for years, but the operations announced today were particularly widespread.

There were various methods the scammers used to get the users on the phone in the first place. In addition to cold-calling, one of the six defendants "purchased ads on Google, for search terms like McAfee, PC support, and fix MS Office, with pseudonyms and a toll-free number to call," Leibowitz said. The company, named PCCare247, allegedly paid Google more than $1 million for search ads going back to 2010. In one example, searching Google for "Contact McAfee Support" brought up the defendants' phone number and website.

Warning: Everything is working normally

The other five companies allegedly used "telemarketing boiler rooms" to make cold calls, including to people on the Do Not Call list. While mostly based in India, they targeted consumers in the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK.

"Pretending to be affiliated with a major computer company, the defendants claimed to have received an automatic notification from the person's computer about a problem," Leibowitz said. "They used Voice over Internet Protocols to seem like they were calling from numbers in the consumer's country, sometimes in the same area code. They told their potential victims to go to their computer, look at a file that shows warning messages—actually these warning messages are just a standard part of the Windows operating system. The messages do not mean the computers are affected with viruses or any other malware."

The "warning messages" come from the Windows Event Viewer, which shows standard messages about the computer's operation. According to Microsoft, "an error is a significant problem, such as loss of data," while "a warning is an event that is not necessarily significant, but might indicate a possible future problem." Scammers allegedly lied to consumers, saying the messages meant hackers were in their computers, and even that their computers might "blow up."

The defendants are charged with "violating the FTC Act, which bars unfair and deceptive commercial practices, as well as the Telemarketing Sales Rule and with illegally calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry," the FTC said. The FTC charged 14 corporate defendants and 17 individuals, and won a temporary restraining order to freeze $188,000 worth of assets and shut down their operations. This includes disabling Web hosting and phone service.

Microsoft and other computer companies helped the FTC in its investigation, as did authorities in Australia, Canada, and the UK. Canada and Australia also brought legal action against the defendants for violations of their Do Not Call laws.

The names of the corporate defendants charged by the FTC include Pecon Software, Finmaestros LLC, Zeal IT Solutions, Virtual PC Solutions, Lakshmi Infosoul Services, and PCCare247.

In the complaint against Pecon Software in India, the FTC said the scams have been going on since at least 2008. The complaint also describes how the scam unfolds after the users have been tricked into thinking their computers are infected. We quote at length:

Having convinced the consumers that their computers are in imminent danger, the Defendants then direct the consumers to a website and instruct them to enter a code or download a software application to allow the Defendants remote access to the consumers’ computers. Once the Defendants have remote access, they are able to completely control the consumers’ computers and can, for example, move the cursor, enter commands, run applications, and access stored information.

The Defendants then attempt to sell the consumer illusory long-term “security” or “technical support” services and perform unnecessary “repairs,” including installing otherwise free programs, such as trial versions of antivirus programs, and deleting the innocuous files they falsely claimed were viruses. The Defendants charge consumers for these services in an amount ranging from approximately $159 to $299.

The Defendants next direct the consumer to one of several websites they operate in order to pay for the computer security or technical support service. The Defendants’ websites are highly interactive. They purport to allow consumers to chat directly with representatives, leave their contact information to request a call-back, and also browse and pay for various services online. In numerous instances, the Defendants register their websites through privacy protection services that mask their true identity. As a result, consumers are unable to determine the true owner of the website or the fact that the same company operates multiple websites.

If consumers do not agree to pay for the service the Defendants typically apply pressure to the consumers. The Defendants will warn consumers about the harm that will come to their computers if they do not allow the Defendants remote access to fix the computers. Afterwards, the Defendants assert they have fixed the non-existent problems. In reality, Defendants merely charged consumers for repair products and services they did not need.

Tech-savvy Ars readers are unlikely to fall for such a scam. But if you have relatives and friends who lack the necessary dose of skepticism, and they receive unsolicited phone calls from people wanting to fix their computers, they should hang up and report the scam to the FTC or their PC security vendor.

While the scammers seem to just want money, Microsoft Director of Consumer Affairs Frank Torres said their tricks could easily be used for worse.

"What's worse is these scams not only cost victims money in terms of making consumers pay for something they don't really need, or that doesn't happen," Torres said. "But it could also compromise the security of their computers, leaving them vulnerable to malicious software and other attacks."

These have been going on like crazy in Australia for about three years. Everyone I know has received three or four calls "from Microsoft". Several family members who aren't tech-savvy have been scammed out of amounts between $50 and $300.

I decided to play along once, and they were surprisingly well-rehearsed. They asked me to open up event viewer, and asked me if I could see any errors. Of course there were some there - password authentication failures and the like.

They said these were critical issues, and had I been non-tech-savvy, the big red crosses would have probably been alarming - I would have thought "These technicians from Microsoft just called, and they knew I had these critical errors. It must be real".

At that point, they referred me to a technician, who would be willing to fix the errors for a "very small fee, we do this at cost price to keep your computer running well - it's a service offered by Microsoft". They asked for my credit card number and I just turned on Rick Astley and let them listen until they gave up.

I can seriously see how people fell for the scam. Some of the transcripts might be ridiculous, but the guy who called me was actually quite a professional con artist.

One of my clients fell for this scam. Unfortunately, he paid over $500 to the scammers. When he refused to pay any more, they actually locked the computer, told him he wouldn't be able to use his computer anymore, and hung up on him.

He brought the tower to me and when I booted Windows, it asked for a password before it even got to the login screen. I pulled the hard drive and ran several scans and wasn't able to find any malicious software, but I still couldn't get past that stupid password prompt. Safe mode still asked for it and so did the last known good configuration boot mode.

Finally, I pulled registry files from the Snapshot folder and replaced the ones in the Config folder. I hope this helps someone if they too are stuck with something like this.

163 Reader Comments

These have been going on like crazy in Australia for about three years. Everyone I know has received three or four calls "from Microsoft". Several family members who aren't tech-savvy have been scammed out of amounts between $50 and $300.

I decided to play along once, and they were surprisingly well-rehearsed. They asked me to open up event viewer, and asked me if I could see any errors. Of course there were some there - password authentication failures and the like.

They said these were critical issues, and had I been non-tech-savvy, the big red crosses would have probably been alarming - I would have thought "These technicians from Microsoft just called, and they knew I had these critical errors. It must be real".

At that point, they referred me to a technician, who would be willing to fix the errors for a "very small fee, we do this at cost price to keep your computer running well - it's a service offered by Microsoft". They asked for my credit card number and I just turned on Rick Astley and let them listen until they gave up.

I can seriously see how people fell for the scam. Some of the transcripts might be ridiculous, but the guy who called me was actually quite a professional con artist.

For heavens sake its just a computer, its not going to blow up in your face ! People should stop getting paranoid about it. That is unless they have a thermally inefficient Nvidia chip powering it ....

They tried this on my mom one time, and persisted even after she told them that her son was getting a degree in Computer Science. "But he might not know about this problem." They only tried the once, though, as far as I know; I wish I could have had the opportunity to prank them...

And when the person paying for the imaginary problem to be imaginary gone, they get what they pay for, too.

Like I said, this is the very height of capitalism. Just because you add an item into the equation doesn't change anything. When you buy a that Mercedes what you're really buying is the feeling of smugness that comes with getting what they've been telling you that you want.

And when the person paying for the imaginary problem to be imaginary gone, they get what they pay for, too.

Like I said, this is the very height of capitalism. Just because you add an item into the equation doesn't change anything. When you buy a that Mercedes what you're really buying is the feeling of smugness that comes with getting what they've been telling you that you want.

Good faith. It's kind of a big deal in U.S. law.

Only if you're not already super rich.

How many bankers and ratings agency executives do you know of who went to jail after the mortgage backed securities scam?

We were getting so many of these calls (usually after the children's bedtime) that we had to pay our telephone company £1.50GBP pcm to block all incoming calls without a caller-ID. This has cut such phone-calls down by about 95%.

We were getting so many of these calls (usually after the children's bedtime) that we had to pay our telephone company £1.50GBP pcm to block all incoming calls without a caller-ID. This has cut such phone-calls down by about 95%.

Wait, you have to *pay* to block calls without caller ID? I think you're the one being scammed right now! :OWe're on Vonage and they do that for free...

As for these scam calls, we've not got any for computer tech support, but my dad has got a couple claiming to be from his insurance company or bank. His strategy is to ask for their phone number so he can call back (after googling it). Every time so far it's resulted in a very quick hangup at the other end!

We were getting so many of these calls (usually after the children's bedtime) that we had to pay our telephone company £1.50GBP pcm to block all incoming calls without a caller-ID. This has cut such phone-calls down by about 95%.

In the past two years, I have had two of these phone calls at my place of work. Feeling skeptical, as I know nobody should be calling me to tell me there is a problem with my servers, I would try to get them to identify unique information for me to establish that they do in fact have a relationship with us. This is where they get generic, and I end the call. I suspected such scams going on, and it's good to see the FTC investigating. One of the callers identified themselves as Dell, (which was false), and the other identified themselves as a company similar in name to Microsoft, but spelled differently.

I feel bad for those who aren't able to recognize the signs of social engineering, and may fall victim to it.

Thanks for the recording. Beyond a certain point, I just couldn't bother trying to understand what the cheat was saying, it was just noise for me. I used to watch Click when AMD was introducing its 64bit processors. These days I read a few tech sites daily.

I was getting these calls almost on a yearly basis until I kept the last guy on the phone for more than half an hour. I kept telling him that my computer was slow to boot up, slow to do anything, to keep him in conversation. He told me that I should just take my computer and 'throw it in the dust bin'.

I asked where he was calling from and he kept telling me that he was calling from Brooklyn, New York. When I asked him if he was a Yankees or a Mets fan, he didn't know what I was talking about. I told him that they were baseball teams. He said that he was a big fan of cricket and the Indian national team, go figure.

Surprisingly, he would not hang up the phone, litteraly, when it was clear that he wasn't going to get anywhere with me, he told me that I had to hang up. I refused, until he eventually closed the line. It makes me wonder why he was so reluctant to hang up himself.

Well, pass me your number. I'll really try to work in that Indian accent

The last 2 weeks I've also had those scammers from Microsoft calling me. That was a fun break. I was faking total ignorance and wanted to stretch the call as long as possible: sorry, miss, I did not understand you, can you repeat that again (times x). And I always tried to leave the subject of computers, bringing in fake personal issues. They eventually gave up on me

I find it unfortunate how ignorant some of you people are. You accuse these people as being "gullible" and stupid yet it is you who have no comprehension of the plight of today's elderly (the main targets of these scams) who are increasingly being encouraged/required to use new technologies yet given little, if any, help before they get into trouble.

They're not getting into trouble, they're falling for one of the oldest scams around (just with "computer" replacing "television" or "radio" or whatever). And what makes you think it's primarily the elderly? Do you think it's the elderly that fall for Nigerian scams the most, too?

You seem to have a very condescending view of the elderly, and people that don't have much of an interest in computers in general.

Over here in the UK, the scammers are getting clever. My mother told me how she was informed by a nice lady from Apple that her iPad was likely infected with a virus.

My mother, calmly and flatly, told the lady that nobody in the household owns an iPad. In fact, since I moved out, the only piece of Apple hardware in the house is my PowerMac 6200 mouldering quietly in the loft space.

Apparently this wasn't good enough. Not having an iPad doesn't protect you from iPad viruses.

None of us are safe from iPad viruses! We're all doomed! *dramatic "oh noes!" face*

I find it unfortunate how ignorant some of you people are. You accuse these people as being "gullible" and stupid yet it is you who have no comprehension of the plight of today's elderly (the main targets of these scams) who are increasingly being encouraged/required to use new technologies yet given little, if any, help before they get into trouble. Have you such a limited concept of human beings that you can't conceive of anyone that thinks differently than you do and as such may be quite innocently susceptible to problems that you find humorously simple to resolve? So often it is those who point and laugh that are the truly ignorant. Do you know what empathy is?

Old people can learn to live in the real world just as easy as any of the rest of us. Hell, since most of them are retired, they have nothing but time to devote to learning more and improving their skills. It's what I'd do. Whether they want to, or not, isn't what's being argued. They have the ability to improve themselves, if they choose not to exercise it then they'll continue to be preyed upon.

You know, the issue really isn't that they don't know much about the computer. Really, it comes down to growing up in an era when trust was extended more because the people you interacted with were right there in the room (or outside) with you. If they cheated you, you knew where they worked and could make the situation right either via legal or other means. With technology growing by leaps and bounds we (unfortunately) now have to interact and deal with people we will never meet. These people often feel very safe trying to scam us because they generally are pretty darn sure we can't find them or get their identity. The whole trust scenario changes. Just like the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theorem - which in part tells us that anonymity breeds assholes. It may be true that older people in general don't know as much about computers. But the bigger issue is that they grew up in an era of face to face contact breeding better behavior than we get now that technology allows us to connect to darn near anyone in the world anonymously. They have trouble changing trust models from "these are probably trustworthy people and if they aren't I can fix it" to "these guys are only calling me because they want to take my money". I imagine some new stuff will come about by the time we all get old and it will probably throw us for a loop too.

Quite a few of these scams would lose some teeth if call spoofing was outlawed.

Not really, your laws don't apply to other countries around the globe (until you "liberate" us, that is). They could easily spoof a US number from India, or failing that, spoof a more plausible country like Canada. US laws won't stop that.

How can you reasonably expect someone like this [stereotype/cliche grandparent] to magically know that this sort of phone call is a scam?

Because real companies don't call you out of the blue to charge you for a problem you didn't know you had.

If "Ford" called your grandfather to tell him he had to take his car to his local mechanic (for imaginary or unecessary repairs) before his wheels fell off, would you be so sympathetic? What makes it suddenly so different when it's a different kind of machine? Computer are full of magic, now? You must "magically know that this sort of phone call is a scam"?

Quote:

He grew up in a world before colour TV, yet you think he's able to decode the stuff in the Windows Event Viewer?

I had a black and white TV until I was about 9. Does that make me more gullible when somebody calls me out of the blue from Microsoft with mythical problems? Are you saying Bill Gates wasn't going to send me money for forwarding on emails?

Quote:

And as for "improving themselves", I'd say wanting to learn to use a computer at 75 years of age is a pretty damn impressive form of self-improvement.

I have an improvement to sell your grandfather (and it comes with a free bridge!)

When I pay for my Mercedes, I actually get a Mercedes. Pretty big difference.

Not really, since you're not really paying for a Mercedes. You're paying for a dick extention. And your dick is still small afterwards.

(Not you personally, I mean the pindicks with vanity cars.)

You could just as easily replace "mercedes" with any other manufacturer- toyota, honda, volvo, maytag, dell, etc... his point was that you get something tangible, not that it's necessarily a status symbol.

So this seems to be a common element across all of these scam stories. You think of those poor, poor individuals having to scrape for food, but it seems to be quite the opposite. They laugh at you, they swear at you, they get rude with you. They're probably rolling around in money and have learned to ignore 'smug IT folks'.

I don't know anyone who had this happen to them. I'm really surprised to see so many people posting about this apparently epidemic level scam...

Maybe you're lucky enough to have avoided being on any contact list. I've had three or four calls over the last few years. I just wish I had the patience to string these fuckers along like so many others in this thread - I generally tell them to piss off and hang up.

Marlor wrote:

These have been going on like crazy in Australia for about three years. Everyone I know has received three or four calls "from Microsoft". Several family members who aren't tech-savvy have been scammed out of amounts between $50 and $300.

I've often wondered this - Is Australia so gullible that we're a better target than other countries? Is that why we get so many phone scams? (I don't know anybody that's fallen for one of these scams, or at least nobody that will admit it.)

Quote:

I can seriously see how people fell for the scam. Some of the transcripts might be ridiculous, but the guy who called me was actually quite a professional con artist.

The ones I've had were ridiculously amateur - anyone that fell for their pitch almost deserved to get ripped off. That's all I've got to compare to, I can't imagine a convincing call from these guys.

Quite a few of these scams would lose some teeth if call spoofing was outlawed.

Not really, your laws don't apply to other countries around the globe (until you "liberate" us, that is). They could easily spoof a US number from India, or failing that, spoof a more plausible country like Canada. US laws won't stop that.

Not at all. These folks call my 94 year old grandmother repeatedly. If she actually used a computer (or if her husband, who did, was still alive) I have little doubt that she would be a victim of this scam. These arseholes prey on the vulnerable: the elderly, people who are cognitively impaired, etc..

garapito wrote:

Old people can learn to live in the real world just as easy as any of the rest of us. Hell, since most of them are retired, they have nothing but time to devote to learning more and improving their skills. It's what I'd do.

You obviously have no clue about this. Imagine the following: Your eyesight is bad enough (with glasses) that you struggle to read the error messages (let alone instructional materials about computers). Your hearing is not good enough to follow exactly what the caller is saying, even with a hearing aid (especially given they speak with an accent). You have poor short-term memory, which makes it hard to learn new things. You are "emotionally labile", so you tend to get upset/distressed easily (e.g. when someone tells you your computer is being controlled by an evil hacker). These are all NORMAL symptoms of aging (i.e. I'm assuming a "healthy" old person with no dementia or other diseases). This will all happen to you if you live long enough. Now imagine that your son/daughter has set a computer up for you so you can skype your grandkids overseas. Under these circumstances, do you REALLY think it is reasonable to expect you to become savvy enough to realise that calls like this are a scam?

You could just as easily replace "mercedes" with any other manufacturer- toyota, honda, volvo, maytag, dell, etc... his point was that you get something tangible, not that it's necessarily a status symbol.

Ah, I assumed that's why he chose Mercedes. Point taken.

Still, it could be argued that "peace of mind" is a tangible benefit - isn't that what insurance companies sell you? (And just like US insurance companies, you're not covered like you thought you were, just when you need it the most!)

Unfortunately an older relative of mine fell for it... too damn trusting, comes from a small town where you can close a deal with a handshake and verbal promise, and people honor it. That's the way it should be, but now that he's getting on in years these types of scams are unfamiliar territory for him.

One of the scam outfits called me yesterday, I strung the caller along for a bit then told him if he ever called me again I would crawl thru the telephone line, tear off his balls and shove them down his throat. And then I told him to 'go forth and procreate' ;-) Next time I'll have to invent some sort of situation like "I can't type, I have to put the phone on speakerphone so you can issue the commands and I'll watch to make sure they're carried out" :-)

You obviously have no clue about this. Imagine the following: Your eyesight is bad enough (with glasses) that you struggle to read the error messages (let alone instructional materials about computers). Your hearing is not good enough to follow exactly what the caller is saying, even with a hearing aid (especially given they speak with an accent). You have poor short-term memory, which makes it hard to learn new things. You are "emotionally labile", so you tend to get upset/distressed easily (e.g. when someone tells you your computer is being controlled by an evil hacker). These are all NORMAL symptoms of aging (i.e. I'm assuming a "healthy" old person with no dementia or other diseases). This will all happen to you if you live long enough.

Before my grandmother died, she was pretty much like you're describing here.

She would have got the shits with the call and hung up on them, not handed over her credit card details.

Quote:

Under these circumstances, do you REALLY think it is reasonable to expect you to become savvy enough to realise that calls like this are a scam?

Yes, because the electric company doesn't call you to tell you there's a problem with the water heater, pay us money and we'll fix it. Mitsubishi doesn't call, say your engine is about to fall out, bring it to us and we'll fix it. Pioneer doesn't call you, tell you that incorrect region DVDs have been played in your DVD player, you need to pay a fine (actually, that would be a good scam right there).

Just because you're old, doesn't mean you're stupid. If you fall for this when you're old, you probably would've fallen for it as a younger person. Old people tend to be less patient, not more gulible.

This article was informative and interesting, and I admit to being amused by recognizing Indian English phrases like "it would be my humble request to you". But something about the tone of the way this article overhypes the Indian angle feels vaguely xenophobic to me, especially the mostly irrelevant reference to Bollywood. (I'm pretty sure phone scams are not a common theme in Bollywood movies, so really the only Bollywood thing about it is that... it was Indian people? A Bollywood reference would make more sense if there was unexpected singing and dancing involved, or a mashup of multiple genres.. or something.)

This kind of scam could just as easily been conducted by an American or someone from any other country. The title itself implies something inherently nefarious about calling from India, whereas really the only reasons its Indian origin in particular might be of interest would be in jurisdictional complications for enforcement and socioeconomic factors (as with Nigerian scams), which the article doesn't really talk about.

Most of the landline calls I get at home are this scam. It has actually changed my behaviour so I now never cross the room to answer a call, assuming any legitimate caller will leave a message. An unfortunate side effect is that for many Australians, these scams are the place they most commonly hear an Indian accent (unless they take taxis often and risk maintaining the negative reation when they meet innocent immigrants and visitors from India. If the Indian government (and I'm only guessing these aren't coming from Bangladesh or Pakistan - how would I know?) cares about its popular perception overseas it will shut these operations down.

It interests me that such a cheap activity can have such broad cultural effect. I'm sure there must be some very evil possibilities in exploiting the emotional impact of irritant telephone calls.

HA! The wife answered one of these calls just last week! The guy didn't say he was from Microsoft, just that there was a problem with one of our Microsoft machines. I picked up the phone and listened to his spiel as he told me he was receiving malware coming from our Windows machine.Only problem there, hoss, is that I run Linux and the wife has a Mac. Me: What IP address was the malware originating from?Caller: I can't say.Me: Well, when you figure that out, you call us right back. Ya hear? (Click)

Damn, I'm going to miss those calls. Presuming a new batch of these companies don't spring up tomorrow. I'm always happy to spend some time on a Saturday afternoon trying to remember all the Windows menus to walk through their scam.

Honestly, sometimes they do give halfway decent answers to tough questions. I asked the last guy what the IP address of the "infected" computer was and he came back with 192.168.something. An actual IP address. A reserved local one, but still a good try, especially on most home networks. They do all seem to have trouble with the notion of multiple home computers.

One of my clients fell for this scam. Unfortunately, he paid over $500 to the scammers. When he refused to pay any more, they actually locked the computer, told him he wouldn't be able to use his computer anymore, and hung up on him.

He brought the tower to me and when I booted Windows, it asked for a password before it even got to the login screen. I pulled the hard drive and ran several scans and wasn't able to find any malicious software, but I still couldn't get past that stupid password prompt. Safe mode still asked for it and so did the last known good configuration boot mode.

Finally, I pulled registry files from the Snapshot folder and replaced the ones in the Config folder. I hope this helps someone if they too are stuck with something like this.

I had one of these wankers call my cousin (he was unsure and thankfully asked me before doing anything). Man I wish they had called me instead though. The amount of entertainment that can be had from these guys is priceless.

However, my favorite is internet service providings, where a guy pranks the unsuspecting victim and tries to get them to switch internet service providings to a better internet service provider to provide better internet service providings.